


She's Got You...

by TheEmpressAR



Category: Bates Motel (2013)
Genre: Blood and Violence, F/M, Mental Anguish, Mental Instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 06:06:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10758258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmpressAR/pseuds/TheEmpressAR
Summary: Whatever happened to Doctor Edwards?  Here is just a one-off notion about how "Mother" took care of the good doctor.





	1. Chapter 1

Norman Bates stood at the front desk of the Bates Motel's office. He was staring at an empty space on the opposite wall. He knew no concept of time. A book lay on the counter in front of him. It was open. It was not the motel registry but an appointment book. Norman blinked and looked back down at the pages in front of him. He ran his long, slender fingers over each entry, tracing his index finger over a word that had appeared more than once. It was in bold, black lettering and as he flipped several pages later the same word floated up into his line of sight.

  
BLACKOUT.

  
He flipped more pages. There the word was. Again and again. He paused his finger stopping on one that had happened just yesterday. The word was scribbled as if frantic...and desperate.

  
He heard the sounds of music tapering down from the house above. It started up as soon as he realized what he had been reading over and over and over again. It was hauntingly melancholic and the same tune he had running through his head earlier in the day. How did she do that? How did she know what he was thinking?

  
_I love you so much, it hurts me_  
_Darlin, that's why I'm so blue_  
_I'm so afraid to go to bed at night_  
_Afraid of losing you_

  
The sounds of Patsy Cline's soulful voice reached the front office, almost as if on a breeze. Norman smiled to himself and closed the book. What was he looking at anyway? He had forgotten. How did he get here? He forgot that as well. All he wanted to do was go up the stairs and find her.

  
He raced out of the office and climbed the stairs. It really wasn't wise for her to be playing music and causing a scene. What if someone from town happened to be stopping by again? What if it was that nosy sheriff? She was worse than Romero ever was. There wasn't a nice bone in her body and she was alway snooping around and getting into his business. She made him nervous. He didn't do anything. Why wouldn't she leave him alone?

  
Chic was the only one who knew. He was the only one who understood. Norman somewhat trusted that he would keep his secret safe. He just didn't care for the man. He wanted his privacy. Chic didn't understand that. Norman didn't want to hurt the older man's feelings but he was almost as bad a the sheriff, poking his nose in at the most inopportune times. He also smelled. He didn't like the man's unkempt appearance. In some odd way, Norman had no respect for that. He was always a fastidious, tidy person...well at least his mother was. When she was alive. He couldn't get her to do much of anything now. Of course, _her_ house was spotless. But Norman lived less than. At least, he rationalized to himself, that she still took care of him more or less.

  
Norman opened the door to his house. It was no longer a home. Home was where his mother was. She was here but it wasn't the same. The mother he loved the mother he cared for was below, tucked away, out of sight. He only saw her when he was to the point of sheer desperation. When he knew he could go on no longer and needed something physical to bring him around.

  
_I've got your picture that you gave to me_  
_And it's signed with love, just like it used to be_  
_The only thing different, the only thing new_  
_I've got your picture, she's got you._

"Where are you?" He called from the door.

  
"In here, Norman." A harsher tone from the kitchen.

  
Norman sighed and straightened his jacket. He never knew what to expect. The music was still blaring loudly from the old turntable in the parlor. He stepped into that room first and turned down the music. _'Why did she need it so loud anyway?'_

  
"To drown out your thoughts!" Came the voice from the kitchen.

  
"How....what do you know about my thoughts?" Norman said walking cautiously toward the kitchen. He heard a crash then and he picked up his pace. He didn't want her hurt. Or did he?

  
He found his "Mother" standing on a step ladder trying to hang some curtains over the sink. She was changing the ones his mother had changed while he was away at Pineview. He never cared for those curtains and preferred the ones she had found with him when they were out shopping for furnishings for the house when she first bought it. That was a good day. He remembered looking at the different window treatments and her jokingly telling him that she could make a dress out of some of the fabrics. He thought the ones that she had eventually decided on for the kitchen window would have made a very pretty dress for her. They matched the blue in her eyes. He noticed that _she_ had found them somewhere and was putting them back.

  
"Oh I'm sorry if I startled you, Honey." She said dusting imaginary dust from her hands onto her pristine apron. Her term of endearment sounded forced. They all did these days. She turned to him with a plastered smile on her face. "I just knocked one of those shitty curtain rods into a vase that was on the counter. It fell on the floor. Oh well, screw it."

  
Norman cringed at the way his mother spoke. He still wasn't quite used to her behavior. He went to the broom closet to get a broom to clean up the broken glass. His mother continued to try and hang the curtains.

  
"Why are you doing that? Why didn't you ask for my help?"

  
"If I asked you for anything...it would never get done....at least the right way..." she muttered the last words under her breath. It was loud enough for Norman to hear.

  
He bristled and began to sweep the glass. She was looking for a fight. Why couldn't she be the way she used to be. Something that was once there was now gone. Replaced with this. This hell of his own making.

  
"I want to ask you something..." He said changing the subject. He threw the broken pieces of the vase into the garbage and turned to face her. He looked at her body. Standing on the step ladder. She was standing on one foot, her other leg bent at the knee and she was leaning against the sink. Norman's eyes trailed her figure. He wanted to see the woman he fell in love with. What he had made her out to be in his mind. He wanted her beautiful. And she was. But not to him. The harshness and bitterness and anger that had taken her place was not the mother he wanted.

  
"I am only trying to take care of you and protect you, Norman. You know that." She had stopped trying to put the curtains up and paused, her hands resting against the sink. She stared out the window...her reflection meeting his eyes in the glass.

  
Norman came as close as he dared to her. He put his hands on her shoulders, willing himself to believe.

  
"Why can't you be her?"

  
"I can't and I never will. I have to be the strong one for the both of us."

  
"I miss her." His nose breathing deeply into her hair, trying to catch a hint of his mother in there...somewhere. He had all but forgotten her smell. He could only find it in her clothes. The ones in her closet. A tear formed in his eye.

  
"Well I'm here now and you have to learn to deal with that. Just know, I will always do what's best to keep you alive and safe. I will not let anything happen to you."

  
"What did he do to me?"

  
"What do you mean?"

  
"You know exactly what I mean."

  
"I'm sorry, Norman I don't..."

  
"DON'T LIE TO ME!!"

  
Norman had stepped away from her, stepped back and looked at her and saw her for the monster she truly was. He stared intensely into her eyes and she set her mouth firm and stared back at him, daring him to test her waters further.

  
"You know everything about me, inside and out. My thoughts. My feelings. My fears. Me. You know me. I don't have to explain myself by now. What did you do to...him?"

  
Norman produced something from his back pocket and laid it on the kitchen table. Her hard features relaxed into one of nonchalance and flippant once again. Death was nothing to her. She had gone through it and she still survived. She felt nothing at the death of another. Just another day at the office. She just wished Norman would grow a set and come to realize how unstoppable they could be together once he learned he couldn't and shouldn't be stopped.

"What's that supposed to prove." She said looking down at what he and put on the table.

  
"You know exactly what it proves. You know that I'm telling the truth. He's just like all the others. Like Jim Blackwell...Like Emma's mom....Like Sam Loomis." Norman was shaking by now. He was going to be sick. He knew he was responsible for all of them. She had told him as much. He believed her on every last one of them. He just didn't want to believe he had also killed someone that could have helped him. Someone that he was close to. Someone who never would have hurt him. Someone who was foolish enough to trust him.

  
"Tell me how it happened. You know I don't remember. All I have is a book and a date and this."


	2. You Belong To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of 3
> 
> How will Dr. Edwards convince Norman that he is better off without her?

Part 2  
  
_I'd be so alone without you_  
_Maybe you'd be lonesome too and blue..._

The semblance of Norma Bates stared down at the object left on the kitchen table. The room was silent and still. The only sound was the co-mingled breathing of two as one.

  
In a quick flash, without warning, she dove for the small, bloodied, leather-bound notebook that was staring back accusingly at her. Norman did not hesitate and collided with her just as she moved for the book. They each grabbed a corner and began to try and wrestle it out of the others' grasp.

  
"Let it go, Mother!" Norman yelled in her face, his eyes becoming dangerous and the vein in his neck beginning to throb.

  
She shoved him back hard and knocked him to the floor. He took her with him. She was straddling him still trying to wrench the book free.

"Norman!! Let me have it!!! You have no need for this!! I thought I had destroyed everything. Let it GO!!!"

  
With a free hand, she slapped Norman hard, a small trickle of blood appearing at his nose. Norman went for her throat and tried to strangle her. He began choking her and she gasped for air. Norman began gasping as well. The pain was blinding at his throat and he stopped almost immediately. She clawed his face with her nails.

  
"You're not going to get me to go away this time!" Norman said struggling to roll her over so that she was underneath him. He managed to flip her and pin both of her hands above her head, the book still in both of their hands. Their combined breathing was hard and ragged but still in tandem. She looked up at him as he looked back at her. Her strong defiance was not easily defeated but she allowed this momentary distraction. His body pressed close to hers his face in her face, daring her to make a move.

  
She switched her tactics as easily as she switched herself on and off. She was an ever-changing kaleidoscope of emotions. She knew it drove Norman even more over the edge, but this is who she was. This was who he made her be. But one underlying fact drove the cord strong between them. She was the one who was in control. Always.

  
"Norman..." She stilled her movements underneath him. Her voice became plaintive trying to soothe his hysteria. He had a locked grip on her wrists. He paused only for a moment. She almost sounded like her.

  
"Stop...stop trying."

  
"Norman....please...you're hurting me."

  
"That's not possible."

  
"It is...I feel what you feel." She moved beneath him. Her body trying to fit itself against his, mold itself into his own. She looked at him seriously and there was the tinest flicker of sincerity in her depths. She hadn't tried to feel him this way in a very long time. She was tired of trying to feel through him. She just wanted to feel his own course of sensations throughout her. Not forcing him to feel for her.

  
A gasp of breath exhaled from Norman as he felt stirrings inside of him that he thought he had dealt with. He lost every possible thought of attraction toward the woman beneath him when she tried to make him kill the kindest and sweetest woman he had ever known, that night in her house. Madeleine would never speak to him again and it was her fault. He shrank back in cold terror at the thought of ever doing anything to harm her. To think what he almost had done to her on account of the monster within's jealousy. Now the monster was beneath him. Knowing him. Knowing what it took to make him shiver with want. How sick was he?

He freed the hand not holding the notebook and brought it to her hair and yanked it back, exposing her neck to him and he brought his mouth close to it. He felt the fine hairs on her neck against his lips as he whispered, "I won't do this."

  
He pushed himself off of her and took the book with him. She let him and lay there for a moment. He sat the book back on the table and walked out of the room. He went to the parlor again and put the needle on the record once more. He went over to the couch and sat down. He was mentally exhausted.

  
_Sweet dreams of you_  
_Every night I go through_  
_Why can't I forget you and start my life anew_  
_Instead of having sweet dreams about you_  
_You don't love me, it's plain_  
_I should know I'll never wear your ring_  
_I should hate you the whole night through_  
_Instead of having sweet dreams about you_

  
She seemed to appear before him again out of nowhere. Her hair back in place. Her clothes neat and tidy. She stood before him, her knees touching his own, barely brushing them. She looked every bit and in every way like his mother used to. Her modest brown skirt. Her powder blue sweater. Her sensible shoes. She held the notebook in her hand.

  
"He followed you out of the bar that night. You didn't notice him but he was also there. " The specter that was Norma began to speak without preamble. Norman did not look up at her. He just waited every bit of bad news as he often did...with it floating from above his head, to settle into the nightmare he created.

"I was out. I was having a good time. You remember the man that cornered you in the bathroom? You know that I fucked his brains out, but that is neither here nor there." She gave him a sly smile at the memory.

  
Norman held his head in his hands. He knew and was trying desperately to forget. He didn't want to know anymore...ever. How could she even when she was using him. How could she have sunk so low? She had no consciousness or dignity for him. She lied so much it was impossible to count how many. They all ran into the other. The one overwhelming lie was that she was protecting him. She was only fulfilling her own selfish needs. She was only wanting to save her own sorry 'skin'.

"I didn't know he was following me. I was having a good time. I was drunk as well. I barely knew what I was doing. It's a good thing I still was sober enough to keep you sleeping. That would have been a sticky situation." She laughed and shook her head.

  
"STOP IT....PLEASE...JUST STOP!" Norman tried to get up but she held him in place with a glare.

  
"You think you're a big man, now. You should be able to handle this. You wanted to know what happened to your damned doctor. The one that could have ended me! You know that I would NEVER allow that to happen, Norman. I'm here and now that I'm free, I will NEVER go back!"

  
Norman stared back at her, the betrayal and hate clear in his eyes, his mouth twisted sadly at the knowledge that his mother was gone and he would never feel her love again. He didn't want to live anymore...he hadn't wanted to for a very long time.

  
"Please stop being so melodramatic...I hate that particular line of thought from you." She sat down beside him at the far end of the couch.  
Several moments passed with neither of them speaking. The house had taken on the feeling of a tomb. Its walls waiting for another revelation of misery that had befallen the inhabitants. So many a tale of woe had taken place here. It knew what it housed within. All of the secrets.

  
"He came by yesterday. You were sleeping."

  
Norman looked over to her. She seemed to be digging into her memories. They were clear to her but she still kept them locked away from her son.

  
"Show me."

  
"I don't want to hurt you again."

  
"You know we're past that point. I need to know...please!"

  
Memories started to form in the back of Norman's mind. She was tired of sparing him. Ever since he plunged the knife deep into Sam Loomis, he would get every horrible, scarring vision of what he was capable of; whatever jarring, visceral images that had become his reality if he wanted it, she would give it to him.

Norman saw Dr. Edwards come into the front office of the motel. He cautiously entered with the same look of concern and sorrow that he had seen on his face since Norman had left the hospital. He watched as the doctor took off his gloves and scarf and put them on the back of one of the chairs. He had turned his back on Norman. He still trusted him. He didn't see her reflection in the mirror that was at the brochure stand. 

  
"What are you doing here, Doctor?" Norma tried to emulate her son, but she could never get it just right.

  
"Hi...Norman....I just came by to check on you....make sure you were still doing ok." Dr. Edwards said, turning his attention to the young man behind the counter. Norman studied the man and cocked his head.

  
"You know I'm fine, Doctor...never better!" He tried to smile coquettishly at him, trying to convince him with his charm.

  
Dr. Edwards hesitantly returned his smile and glanced around the office. He noticed there was a layer of dust on all of the furnishings and pictures and the computer. It looked like no one had been here in weeks or months. This concerned him. Clearly, Norman wasn't taking care of things around the motel. He wondered how his needs were being met. He glanced at the register and noted that only a handful of guests had been there since his mother passed away. He looked back up at the boy and saw the gauntness of his cheeks and the hollow look in his eyes when he was as close as he was.

  
"Why are you lying to me, Norman?"

  
Norman flittered the slightest hint of a frown across his features. She schooled them back into complacency.

  
"I don't know what you mean."

  
"I saw you in town the other night. At least I thought it was you." He looked at Norman coaxing him to know that he knew.

  
"Doctor Edwards...I haven't...."

  
"How can you let her win, Norman? I know you haven't taken your medication in over a year. I keep trying with you, son...because I know you can beat her. I know you can get the help you need if you would only let me...help you! I hate to see that this is what you've become. A puppet to her whims. You can't do this on your own. You're not strong enough. Your brother cares about you. He doesn't want you to live like this. I know he doesn't. I don't want you to live this way either. I care about you, Norman. I don't want to see her using you the way I did the other night."

  
"She doesn't use me. She still protects me. She doesn't want me hurt either. Why can't you see that? I have her under control." she could barely get the words out. She hated the man in front of her more than ever. She started to fumble for something under the desk. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself.

  
"Norman....I saw you.....dressed as her. I saw her! She had a man with her and was leading you away to a car with him. You should be able to make those choices on your own. You were not yourself then.

  
"That's...that's just not true...I know what I do at all times. She doesn't think for me. I am my own person!"

  
"Really..." Edwards said coming close to him now. He went around the desk. He faced Norman and looked into his eyes. "Then how come he isn't here to talk to me now?"


	3. Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Edwards goes by the way of so many in this tragic little show...You tried, Doctor. You tried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reader can rest assured that behind all the blood and viscera is a know-it-all having some fun.

Part 3 of 3

  
Crazy...

  
_Blood everywhere. Coating the walls. A river on the floor. So much blood. She had heard somewhere before...somewhere in the back of his mind that the human body contains about 10 pints of blood. Seemed about right with the amount that was painting the room._

  
_She stood up and wiped a bloody hand across her face. The same hand held a dripping bloody butcher knife. She was really starting to believe this was her modus operandi. Nothing quite so satisfying as the sounds of life expiring and the hot spray of it as she plunged the knife in again and again. She didn't get to enjoy the artwork her host of a son made out of that dirty cheating bastard, but like mother like son. She trained him well. She knew he was going to be disappointed in this one. She looked down at the stab-laden body and shook her head. '_ I tried to warn you.' _She shrugged._

  
_She stared at her son's reflection in the mirror that had a large red_ splash _across it. His eyes were glazed over. He was not there. But he stared back at her. Vacant....disheveled....heaving with exertion. He was never sexier than at this moment. His face quirked a smile. She looked back down at the floor and sighed. She really needed to work on that overkill factor. It was a good thing she loved to clean up a mess._

  
_She went to the back room of the office and retrieved a bucket and mop. She began whistling a jaunty little tune...a smile on her face...she almost danced a jig if she didn't think she'd slip in the viscera._

  
_I'm back in baby's arms_  
_How I missed those lovin' arms_  
_I'm back where I belong_  
_Back in baby's arms..._

  
30 minutes earlier...

  
"Mrs. Bates...when are you going to let Norman go free? When will you move on? He doesn't need your protection anymore."

  
Norma looked at Doctor Edwards for a fraction of a second. It only took that long for her to drop the ruse. She smiled slyly.

  
"I ought to give you more credit, Doctor. But I guess you have always been astute enough to know when I'm here."

  
"Call it a talent of my trade," Dr. Edwards said dryly. "Norman's mother died some time ago. His stepfather is locked away in prison. His brother is gone. He really needs the help. He shouldn't be alone as he is now. There is no one to look after him and there is no one he can turn to if he needs help. He shouldn't be locked away up in that house with only...you. He's a danger to himself and others. I should never let him out of the hospital. I have felt guilty for even thinking about agreeing to let him out when I did. And look at everything that has happened since then. You can't help him. You are only hurting him more."

  
Norma's hand gripped the counter top of the desk. Her face had become grim. Her other hand gripped the handle of what she knew she had planted there earlier. She was always the smart one to think ahead in times of need. "Is that what you think, Doctor." Her words were slow and measured.

  
"That's what I know. I'm here today to convince him that he needs to come with me. All of this I am sure has been quite overwhelming to him and you're the proof of that. How much are you out more than he is? How often is he even allowed to be out anymore? Do you think that's fair to him?"

  
"Do you think that it's fair that I've been protecting him for most of his life and that I've never had a chance to even walk out the front door and into town? The times I have tried, I've been lectured and fought by him. I'm not allowed to leave! I'm not allowed to show my face in public. I'm not allowed to prove I EXIST!!! I'm TIRED of this shit, Gregg! I want OUT!!! I want what I've had these past couple of weeks. A breath of fresh air...a chance to live my life. To do what I WANT to do!!! I'm not going to let the fact that I'm trapped inside this body stop me from doing what I want to do!!"

  
"Don't you care about what you're doing to Norman? Edwards said trying to reason with insanity. You protect him from all the bad things...but you ARE the bad things. I only hope you haven't gone so far as to do something completely horrific that you can't back away from."

  
Norma smiled at him again. She didn't speak or move. The silence grew between them. A look of appalled understanding crossed Edwards' face. "What have you done?"

 

 

"Mother...what have you done?" Norman looked across the couch at the woman sitting calmly at the other end. His face was ashen and he was perspiring.

  
"I wasn't going to be locked away from you, Norman."

  
"He didn't deserve that."

  
"He was going to hurt me, Norman. You have to believe me. I love you so much I couldn't bear the thought of being without you." She reached out for his hand. Both of his were covering his eyes...trying to block the images of blood, the immobilized figure on the ground the look of disappointment and pain etched on his lifeless face.

  
"Did he suffer much?" He said softly between his fingers.

  
Norma paused. What could she say?

  
"He's right you know."

  
"Norman...you don't mean it. I know you're upset now. But after a while, things are gonna be ok. They will always be ok. We always make it through the hard times. It's just me and you. You know it. I don't want to be anywhere but with you. Your mother knows best. I know what's best for you."

  
Norman let out a strangled sigh. His shoulders slumped and he knew that inevitably she was right. This was Norma's in. She knew when he started to understand that she knew she had reached him. She scooted closer to him on the couch. She touched his hand with her own. Their synchronized breathing calmed and Norman turned to her and rest his head on her shoulder. She smiled...wholeheartedly relieved. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close to her. She rest her chin on top of his head. "We have to get rid of the body."

  
The last cut on the record began to play as Norman stood up.

  
_Crazy_  
_For thinking that my love could hold you_  
_I'm crazy for trying_  
_And crazy for crying_  
_And I'm crazy for loving you..._

  
He reached his hands out to her and she placed hers in his own. He lifted her up off of the couch and walked hand in hand with her to the front door. They had work to do.


End file.
